On February 12, eight library associations (AALL, ALA, AAHSL, ACRL, ARL, GWLA, SPARC, SLA) sent a letter of thanks for the NIH public access policy to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for health & human services, and Rep. David Obey (D-WI), chairman of the House Appropriations committee. On Feb. 14, the organizations sent the letter with some changes to Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. Excerpt from the latter:
... We understand that a special interest group of publishers has requested that a rule-making procedure be initiated, which would further delay taxpayers’ access to the results of our collective $29 billion investment in this important research. We wish to strongly reiterate that the Alliance and its members enthusiastically support the immediate implementation of the NIH
Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-08-033) policy ...
Special interests must not be allowed to further stall NIH public access. ... Any delay will only hold back scientific advancement and impede the public's access to high-quality health information. The April 7, 2008 implementation date announced by NIH must not be held up. ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 2/16/2008 09:47:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
